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Paula Poundstone
<html> <head> <title>Paula Poundstone</title> <meta name="googlebot" content="noodp"> <meta name="robots" content="noodp"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="/silly-nndb-icon.png" /><style type="text/css"> <!-- .fotmbar { color: #FFFFFF; text-decoration: none} .fotmbar:hover { color: #FFFFFF; text-decoration: underline} .newslink { color: #000000; text-decoration: none} .newslink:hover { color: #000000; text-decoration: none} .proflink { color: #000000; text-decoration: none} .proflink:hover { color: blue; text-decoration: underline} .b1f, .b2f, .b3f, .b4f {font-size:1px; overflow:hidden; display:block;} .b1f {height:1px; background:#e6e6e6; margin:0 5px;} .b2f {height:1px; background:#e6e6e6; margin:0 3px;} .b3f {height:1px; background:#e6e6e6; margin:0 2px;} .b4f {height:2px; background:#e6e6e6; margin:0 1px;} .contentf {background: #e6e6e6; padding: 2px; } .contentf div {margin-left: 5px;} --> </style></head> <body bgcolor=#ffffff> <center> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr><td valign=top><table width=550 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td bgcolor=white><table width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" background="/nndb.gif"> <tr> <td rowspan="2" align="left" valign="top"><a href="http://www.nndb.com/"><img src="/title.gif" width="260" height="50" border=0 alt="NNDB"></a></td> <td><table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"> <tr align="center"> <td width="25%" nowrap><b><font size="-1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is a beta version of NNDB</font></b></td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="middle"><b><font size="-1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <form action="http://search.nndb.com/search/nndb.cgi" method="get"> <input type="hidden" name="nndb" value="1"></input> <nobr>Search: <select name="omenu"> <option value="unspecified" selected>All Names</option> <option value="living">Living people</option> <option value="dead">Dead people</option> <option value="bands">Band Names</option> <option value="books">Book Titles</option> <option value="movies">Movie Titles</option> <option value="fulltext">Full Text</option> </select> for <input name="query" value="" size=24 maxlength=96> <input type=submit value="Search"> </font></b></nobr></form></td> </tr> </table> <!-- COPYRIGHT (C) 2008 SOYLENT COMMUNICATIONS --> <!-- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED --> <!-- NO PART OF THIS WEBSITE MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION --> <!-- OF SOYLENT COMMUNICATIONS (ON THE WEB, IN PRINT, OR OTHERWISE) --> <!-- --> <!-- SOYLENT COMMUNICATIONS --> <!-- PO BOX 4436, MOUNTAIN VIEW CA 94040 USA --> </td></tr><tr><td bgcolor=red height=2></td></tr><map name=fool><area coords="102,0,240,14" href="/people/340/000022274/bibliography/" alt="bibliography"></map><tr bgcolor=F0F0F0><td bgcolor=F0F0F0 style="padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px;"><img src="/red-profile-2.gif" align="right" height=15 width=240 border=0 usemap=#fool><br clear="all"><table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=100%><tr><td bgcolor=F0F0F0><font size=+3 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Paula Poundstone</b></font><p><img src="poundstone-9930-pic.jpg" height=300 width=237 align=right hspace=10 vspace=10 alt="Paula Poundstone"><b>Born:</b> <a href="/lists/881/000106563/" class=proflink>29-Dec</a>-<a href="/lists/958/000105643/" class=proflink>1959</a><br><b>Birthplace:</b> <a href="/geo/681/000071468/" class=proflink>Huntsville, AL</a><br><p><b>Gender:</b> Female<br><b>Religion:</b> <a href="/lists/282/000069075/" class=proflink>Atheist</a><br><b>Race or Ethnicity:</b> White<br><b>Sexual orientation:</b> <a href="/lists/913/000116565/" class=proflink>Asexual</a><br><b>Occupation:</b> <a href="/lists/230/000069023/" class=proflink>Comic</a><p><b>Nationality:</b> United States<br><b>Executive summary:</b> Asexual comic<p>Paula Poundstone has bused tables, and worked as a bike messenger. She started doing comedy on open-mike nights in Boston in 1979. She's politically liberal, wrote for <I>Mother Jones</i> from 1993 to 1998 and covered the 1996 Republican Convention for <I>The Rosie O'Donnell Show</i>. She's known for wearing loud neckties, and has joked for years of being in therapy. Her 1993 comedy-variety <I>Paula Poundstone Show</i> aired for two weeks on ABC before being canceled.<P> In 2001, Poundstone was arrested for driving drunk with kids in the car, and the state took custody of her three children. She was charged with, among other things, "lewd acts on a girl under the age of 14", and though that charge was dropped, everyone involved is under a court order not to talk about it -- an ideal ingredient for career-wrecking gossip. Poundstone has said only that she was drunk, she's sorry, and the "lewd acts" charge was "without foundation". The whispered but unconfirmed story is that Poundstone's foster daughter made up the "lewd act".<p> That would jibe with Poundstone's public persona -- she is asexual, doesn't date, and she has never been romantically linked with anyone of any gender. "I don't have sex because I don't like it," she once joked. "I'd have to marry a Mormon so someone could cover my shift." What is known for sure about the 2001 incident is that Poundstone went into rehab, cleaned up her alcoholism, and she regained custody of her children a year and a half later.<P> She was a panelist on <I>To Tell the Truth</i> when she was first arrested, a gig she quickly lost, and her career has languished since. She still does stand-up comedy and often appears on NPR's quiz show, <I>Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me</i>, and that's about it. "I'm now a nationally known child abuser, and believe me, what a pleasure it is to carry that moniker around".<p> She is also the co-author of several books about mathematics for grade-school students, co-written with her former high school math teacher, Faye Nisonoff Ruopp. <p><b>Father:</b> (electrical engineer, Raytheon)<br><b>Daughter:</b> Toshia (b. 1991; adopted 1997)<br><b>Daughter:</b> Allison (b. 1994; adopted 1997)<br><b>Son:</b> Thomas<br><p> High School: Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, Sudbury, MA (dropped out)<br><p> <a href="/media/202/000045067/">Mother Jones</a> Columnist (1993-98)<br> <a href="/org/637/000063448/">Alcoholics Anonymous</a> <br> <a href="/company/532/000164040/">IHOP</a> Hostess<br> <a href="/detox/462/000042336/">Promises</a> <br> <a href="/crime/293/000043164/">Driving While Intoxicated</a> 27-Jun-2001 (arrested in Santa Monica, CA)<br> <a href="/crime/342/000043213/">Child Endangerment</a> 27-Jun-2001 (Santa Monica, CA, no contest)<br> <a href="/crime/332/000043203/">Child Molestation</a> 27-Jun-2001 (Santa Monica, CA, charge dropped<br> <a href="/crime/430/000050280/">Violating Probation</a> <br> <a href="/event/610/000163121/">Lost Child Custody</a> (temporary)<br> Risk Factors: <a href="/lists/780/000064588/">Alcoholism</a><br> <p> <font size=-2 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">TELEVISION</font><br> <a href="/tv/429/000051276/">The Hollywood Squares</a> <br> <a href="/tv/412/000210779/">Home Movies</a> Paula Small (1999)<br><p> <font size=-2 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR</font><br> <a href="/films/396/000397202/">Inside Out (18-May-2015)</a> <font size=-2 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">[VOICE]</font><br> <a href="/films/137/000271321/">Wisecracks (Jun-1992)</a> · Herself<br> <a href="/films/026/000266225/">Hyperspace (Sep-1984)</a> <br><p> <b>Official Website:</b><br><a href="http://www.paulapoundstone.com/" target=_blank>http://www.paulapoundstone.com/</a><p> <b>Rotten Library Page:</b><br><a href="http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/entertainers/comic/paula-poundstone/">Paula Poundstone</a><p> <b>Author of books:</b><br> <i>There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say</i> (<tt>2006</tt>, memoir)<br><p> <br> <p> <table> <tr> <td align=right valign=middle style="padding-right: 5px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 22px; font-style: italic; color: #ff3333;">New!</span><br> <a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/" class="fotmlink" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; color: #dd0000;">NNDB MAPPER</a></td> <td valign=middle align=right style="border-left: 1px solid #bbb; padding-left: 5px;">Create a map starting with</td> <td valign=middle align=right><a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=22274"><img src="/woman.gif" border=0 style="padding: 2px;"></a></td> <td align=left valign=middle> <a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=22274">Paula Poundstone</a></td> </tr> </table> <font face="Trebuchet MS, arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Requires Flash 7+ and Javascript.</font> <br><br><p> <font size=-1>Do you know something we don't?</font><br> <font size=-1><a href="http://commentary.nndb.com/submit/feedback/?id=22274" rel="nofollow">Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile</a></font><br> <p> <br><br><p><font size=-1>Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications</font><p> </td></tr></table> </td></tr> </table> </td> <td width=180 align="center" valign="top" style="padding: 0px 0px 8px 25px;"></td></tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>